< One week...

and so it comes...Nipplehead is going to Nippon.

looking around the chaos that is my room right now, i can honestly say that this is turning out to be a "slightly" bigger deal than i had thought it was going to be 6 months ago. now if i were just planning on going to travel/play for a year it wouldn't be so bad...(just huck in some clothes and go), but now i've gotta think about dress code while i work there (meaning i'll have to make room for some *gasP* DRESS shoes/pants/shirts?!)..."Omiyage" (gifts/souvenirs to give out), athletic/outdoor gear (for when i swim to Okinawa & bike Mt. Fuji) and i'll be packing clothes for 4 seasons and not just one or two like how it was when i shipped out to 'Loo. i need to buy some more underwear.

i think it wasn't till after Saturday night's little gathering @ NU that it finally started to sink in; not so much that i'll be gone for a year, but that i've got less than 2 weeks left here. quite a bit i still wanna do, people to see, things to take care of...

and here i am blogging eh? right. back to work.

i'll leave behind some eye candy from last week's late dinner/drinks @ Nu in False Creek:








thank you to all for your Nippular support!
(click >HERE< for the rest)


Postscript:

i was never that good at science in school, always more of an arts/english dude. i guess that could explain a lot...

come up to meet you, tell you i'm sorry,
you don't know how lovely you are

i had to find you, tell you i need you,
tell you i'll set you apart

tell me your secrets and ask me your questions,
oh lets go back to the start

running in circles, coming in tales,
heads are a science apart

nobody said it was easy, it's such a shame for us to part
nobody said it was easy, no-one ever said it would be this hard
oh take me back to the start

i was just guessing in numbers and figures,
pulling the puzzles apart

questions of science, science and progress,
do not speak as loud as my heart

tell me you love me, come back and haunt me,
oh and i rush to the start

running in circles, chasing our tales,
coming back as we are

nobody said it was easy, oh it's such a shame for us to part
nobody said it was easy, no-one ever said it would be so hard
oh take me back to the start

The Scientist - Coldplay

it was a frenzy to the finish...but i'm FINALLY done my stint here in the Apprentice Office @ BCIT. some notes from the past little while:


Wedding Season - Saturday, July 15 2006

E&J's wedding, this Saturday it was. i bought my first tie for it b/c i was to be an usher, and i think ushers ought to be presentable. ok well, it's not exactly my very first tie...i've had others, but since this is the first one i bought for myself.

that doesn't have Dino...or any other other cartoon animals on it. so i guess that makes it my first real "adult" tie.

i don't know which sounds better/worse:

"my suit is so cheap that it cost the same as my tie!"
or
"my tie is so expensive that it cost the same as my entire suit!"

take whichever one you please, both are true. =P


Congratulations Joyce & Eric!

my fragile memory makes it a bit harder to retain a lot of the funny sh*t that happens at random these days, but here are a few notable recent conversations:

(while roasting marshmallows, and apparently each other @ camp)
Cywa: hey dude, you got a stick?
Eltro: yeah, but it's kinda short...

(during dinner, discussing "usher" duties for the wedding)
Vince: ok, you ushers have to walk the grandma's down the aisle.
Jon: ummm, how do you "walk" a grandma?
Me: slowly.
should really resurrect the Quote Wall. maybe i'll start one in Moriguchi.


Unwritten - Sunday, July 16 2006

woke up to the sound of my radio this morning. song playing was one i usually ignore, but for some reason this morning (maybe b/c it was quiet, i was tired, and only my subconscious was awake?) i actually listened long enough to hear/consider the lyrics for the first time...and they seemed to sit quite well with me. normally when i hear this song on the radio (it's been getting a lot of airtime) i just kinda tune it out or switch stations; it's r&b/dance-ish and the melody just isn't very "attractive" to me...but the words (esp. the chorus) are actually quite representative of my thoughts as i start preparing for this next adventure:

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

it was nice, just lying there first thing in the morning and listening to this sort of "message" coming from the airwaves. so, that kinda set the tone for my day.


FOOD Day! - Wednesday, July 19 2006

the "A-team" decided to have (another) food day to send off their Turtle-loving-Tattooed-Triathlete. so of course, as a tribute to myself, they made sure the food was healthy: jalapeno poppers, a bucket of KFC, spring rolls, fried wontons, artichoke dip... basically all deep fried goodness. i also got an unexpected gift:


it's soooo cool! i was like "whoa..."

my supervisor saw it in a store one day and bought it. said it had my name all over it. AND to top it all off they busted out a TMNT ice cream cake! chocolate cookie crunch goodness...


Tat2s & Memories... - Thursday, July 20 2006

co-worker went n got her very first tat2 at lunch. brave girl, i'm very proud of her. it's of a small design she drew herself; a heart w/ a crown on it (just a little bigger than a Toonie), on her inside wrist from Mirella's. when she mentioned Mirella's it brought back memories...i rmmbr it as the 1st tat2 parlour i ever saw:

in gr. 1-3 when i used to take the school bus to school out to Coquitlam, we always had to get onto Hwy 1 via the Grandview Highway/Boundary Road ramp, and i'll always remember seeing that neon sign on the street corner as we turned: Mirella's Touch of Class tattoos. yup, nice tiny little shop, next to the lawnmower repair shop...both still in business after all these years.

coincidentally, today is when i booked myself in for my final Session before Japan as well. just a shorter one (~1.5 hours), but that's an entry for another time.


the End, and the Prologue... - Friday, July 21 2006

today was my last day. can hardly believe it...it's been almost exactly one year since i first walked through the doors of SW1-2140 and joined the "A-team" (A for Apprentice). One year from the day my co-workers first saw this peculiar looking guy sitting in their midst; eating his sandwiches and taking up all the room in the staff fridge with his "mega" lunches. =P

official goodbye rituals were done on Wednesday, but people still stopped by to say bye and wish me well...which was unexpected and nice at the same time. one co-worker was telling me stories of how he had a stint in Tokyo/Yokohama when he was younger. he's an older guy; said he used to be a performer w/ a troupe, went there to perform with a group that was assembled especially for some sort of arts festival...and aside from being an actor/singer his "claim to fame" (as he put it) was that he played the Musical Saw. musical saw?! i've seen that before i think, but seriously that totally came out of nowhere. the dude's the currently a student financial aid advisor in our office; supposedly a position that requires sound judgement and someone with a good head on their shoulders right? and here we have a guy who once ran away and joined the circus. LOL, gotta love the irony.

more details about Japan have finally started trickling into my Inbox:

Flight: Aug. 5th - Depart YVR @ 1300 ==> Aug. 6th 1510 Arrive @ Narita
Accommodation:
- 24m(squared)
- 1 bedroom + kitchen room
- equipment: electicity, gas, water & hot water supply, bathroom, toilet, A/C, refrigerator (hope it's a big one), washing machine
-4 minute walk fromthe Keihan Moriguchishi Station
-7 minute walk from the Subway Moriguchi Station

2 weeks.


"No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in
No one else, no one else, can speak the words on your lips..."

Nature Calls - Saturday/Sunday, July 8-9 2006

good weekend getaway to "Cult Ass" Lake.



(more on the Training Log)


likely my last camping trip before Nippon. it's coming down to the wire, i feel the pressure slowly building as the date fast approaches....
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nyeh =P who am i kiddin'? still procrastinating.

*notes: saw Superman Returns on Friday, didn't really know what to expect other than the fact that i thought Brandon Routh wouldn't make a good Superman. i was partly correct in that i still have a hard time seeing him as the Superman...but i find i really like him as a Clark Kent. i think he does a good job as the mild-mannered reporter, and even w/ the homage paid to the Reeve movies (w/ the mirroring Lois & Clark scenes) i think he really made the role his own. discussed similarities betw. Supes and JC afterwards w/ MEF, and one that i don't rmmbr being mentioned that i thought of recently was the fact that it was a woman again (nurse) who found the empty "tomb". just another factoid.

had my first crack (or pop) at making balloon animals Saturday.

i suck.

*more Cultus Pics

<4 weeks and counting...

~*hocus pocus*~, days go by...
for those at work who see me everyday i think it's hard to tell, but the past few weeks it feels like i've been under some magical spell...

is it the sun?
was it the fun?
or is it something else...?
well whatever it is, my mind now resembles mush from overusage. departure for Japan is less than a month away now...(where did the time go?)...and yet there just doesn't seem to be much excitement/anxiety sinking in about this new adventure. when i was waiting 3 months ago i figured my mind would be on thoughts of Japan; excited about what i'll eat, where i'll live, where to visit and what to do...but in reality...nyeh, it's not so much like that at all.

~*keep my focus*~, i must try...
oh i'm sure i'll feel it eventually, once i get on the plane perhaps...but for now at least, (hmmm, how to describe...) i just can't help feeling a bit like this:


(truly worth 1000 words!)

still, in a sense everything is moving along fine; got contacted by the school there, been corresponding via email w/ the current/returning JETs about living conditions, dress code etc...stuff seems to be lining up quite well.

i worry about all that i don't want to leave behind...but i guess this is my newest test of faith...to leave matters in the hands of Someone much more capable and infinitely wiser than i.


"how did this happen...
this dream, come true?
i'm holding my breath now,
until
i wake up..."

(from Falling into Space - March 2005)

hmmm...imagine if i fell asleep here, and and then found myself waking up in Japan.



that'd be kinda funny.















wouldn't it?



*Random: wow. today is like, the first time i've worn pants to work in over a month.